WiseTech Global acquires Xware to expand technical and commercial opportunities

Global logistics solutions group WiseTech Global has announced the acquisition of Swedish messaging solutions provider Xware. Xware’s solution is a turn-key integration system that connects different systems through messaging, API or transactions. Called xTrade, it is an interoperable platform that is entirely module-based and includes everything needed for business-to-business (B2B) and Internet of Things (IoT) integration.

xTrade has clients spread across a variety of verticals, and within the logistics ecosystem its solution has been used to link businesses to their suppliers and partners, and allows them to securely transmit information across the border – including file transfers, business process management, real-time messaging, queuing business flows and data integration.

Xware happens to be of particular interest to WiseTech Global because their target audiences and respective products are parallel. WiseTech Global’s flagship product – CargoWise One – is a platform that is designed to create automation within end-to-end logistics processes, and to foster seamless communication between different stakeholders in the value chain. And like xTrade, CargoWise One also happens to be interoperable, integrating different systems together, increasing operational efficiency and improving interaction with customers.

Even as consumer expectations about the speed of delivery stretch supply chains to their limits, stakeholders within the value chain want to make their logistics operations as lean as possible to increase profit margins. In such a scenario, interoperability becomes critical because companies have to integrate old systems with new ones and cross-communicate across platforms and stakeholders to understand data streams, helping tweak operations to improve efficiency.

“Joining WiseTech Global brings Xware to a new phase with extensive new technical and commercial opportunities, such as access to the global market, and their very advanced and innovative development resources,” said Jonas Ericsson, managing director of Xware. “While we remain committed to delivering the best messaging integration solutions to our customers across Sweden and their ongoing support, we will now be able to help more organizations that operate outside the Nordics.”

With the acquisition, Xware’s team will be absorbed into WiseTech Global, with Richard White, the CEO and founder of WiseTech Global, lauding this development. White said the acquisition will enhance the company’s messaging gateway and ensure it has greater control over the future development, quality and scalability of its key messaging technology.

“This is part of our digital straight-through processing strategy to accelerate adoption, reduce risks and costs and encourage wider digitization within the logistics industry. This adjacency acquisition will also expand our innovation resources, deliver benefits to our customers and improve partner channel capacity for integrations to CargoWise platforms,” said White.

White explained that the companies will continue to improve the speed and ease at which  businesses can interconnect their variety of information systems within the CargoWise One platform. Xware will have a role to play in the company’s new platform that is under development, called the CargoWise Nexus – designed to enable customers to connect digitally with their clients and trading partners.

WiseTech Global has consistently been acquiring companies across the world, in line with its stated strategy to accelerate long-term organic growth of the company by gaining strategic geographic footholds and technology-adjacency acquisitions.